2 posts tagged “internet”

Yesterday I read the details of a writer’s experiences over a few days when all went awry.  She wrote of e-mails carrying her newsletter not going through to readers, and then of her receipt of rejections from three agents. Yes, she wrote “…three agents.”  I was extremely touched at the writer’s honesty. Life’s not easy for me and I’m published.

This is not to say all is going bad in my life. Neither was all going terribly in this writer’s life.  But the travails of those recent days were emotionally harrowing. And I have had my share of downers so I could relate.
 
The writing life—the path of the writer/author, published or not—is one of conflict.  It is from our conflicts—bother inner and outer—that we write.  Question is, how much conflict is too much?

Sometimes I feel it is overwhelming.  I’m sure this writer felt the same during her days of hell, as she entitled them. For me the struggle is an inner one. The writer of the article was getting it from all around.
But my lot can always, has and will eventually change.

Change is the one constant upon which we can all depend—the ultimate transformation being death.
In a way the writer of the article went through a small death. I did too in reading her story.
It reminded me of all the times I have and did crawl in bed and pull the comforter over my head.

In that I am published and I have thoroughly enjoyed working with my publisher, I have much to be, and for which I am extremely grateful.  Yet the internal critic, the voice inside my head speeds on talking, mumbling, shouting and complaining.  Nothing is ever right, from the critic’s perspective. As a result I am forever stretching to attain perfection—both within and outside of me.
I am now reminded of the old saying, “Perfection is the enemy of good.”

I need to be working on my next novel.

Well perhaps I feel I should be.

Or rather I want to be.

But alas, I am tired.

Needs.

Should’s.

Want’s.

The mind has a way of blurring the boundaries separating the three.

After working with my publisher, who also happens to be my editor, and a good one at that, from January 2007- May 2007 to get my book ready to go to press—and then spending June until now on drumming up publicity—working this time working with the director of marketing, I want a break.  Again I am grateful for so much assistance from my publisher. At a time when most authors cannot call up their publisher and speak to the movers and shakers of the company, I am always well received when calling them.  I am truly grateful.

Yet, I’ve lost count of how many days I have sat down to my computer, and didn’t rise until 8 hours later.  I’ve had to learn the new rules of marketing and public relations over the internet.  I am told that where the two are separate entities in the old, pre-internet world of doing business, they have now merged.

It is work being a writer. We are called to task each day--whatever phase one is in as an author—novice attempting to refine her or his skills at crafting stories, writer with a story and trying to get an agent or publisher, newly published author, or seasoned writer published thrice time double thrice.

It was nice on this morning to turn on my computer and when checking my e-mails read this story of a writer’s struggles—a story filled with honesty to which many, if not all of us and on many days can and do attest.

Thank you, Hope, for your humility and honesty.

I pray I exhibit as much authenticity when my time rolls back around.

Read Hope Clarke’s story, Hope’s Hell, in Volume 7, Issue 38 September 23, 2007 at:

http://www.fundsfor writers.com/FFW.htm
While there check out her website: FundsforWriters
 
 

Do we as authors write for the sake of writing and doing nothing else?  Or are we compelled to craft stories, poems and essays and whatever publicity writing is required of us to get our creative work into the hands of readers? Are we willing to break with tradition and submit our work to venues on the internet in an effort to achieve our goals of publication? Are we willing to abandoned tried, but not always true, methods that have and do not always show respect for what we have written, and the time that we have invested into refining our words?

Working with the internet, not unlike when we write to hone our fiction writing skills, involves large amounts of writing.  And sometimes publicizing our work over the internet may seem like we are giving ourselves away, or worse yet, handing our writing to the public for free.  Then again we know how often publishing companies have and still do get rights to the works of new authors for bargain basement prices—work that the publishing companies own in perpetuity, even if they allow the author’s book to go out of print.

Studying the internet for the purposes of learning how to market one’s writing would seem in keeping with the entire purpose of working toward becoming an author, traditionally published or under one’s own auspices.

The writing and publishing worlds, two distinct mediums that together form the universe of selling books, move at a snail’s pace along the path of change. Publishing companies bemoan the drop in sales of books, and authors take the financial brunt of this phenomenon that traditionalists in the publishing world say results from the rise of companies like amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and many like companies or individuals that sell books over the internet, and at cheaper prices. These individuals and companies who sell books over the internet also make out-of-print books otherwise unattainable through traditional bookstores accessible to the readers like you and me where as chain book stores and independent ones cater mainly to new and commercial titles.

With all this calling out to us, and the ability to respond at our fingertips, why are we not paying attention?

Whether MFA programs come to teach any courses in internet marketing for fiction writers, or weekly writing groups become places for participants to critique not only the stories we craft, but also how we choose to market them, we as writers must take the lead if we are to survive as both writers/authors/poets/essayists and entrepreneurs whose business it is to market and sell or words. Musicians have taken the lead with graphic artists and painters following. Authors, published and those toiling for the holy grail of seeing their words in print have no other choice. Perhaps one day the discussions of writing group participants will include offering tips on which blog lists we can join or use to publicize information about our new and or recent publication.

As authors we must write, not only our stories, but also on our blogs, press releases and synopses for the purpose of bringing attention to our works.

We must also write with seriousness and commitment—whatever we craft.

Now, unlike in years and decades past, consumers want and demand a taste of what we have to say before they shell out money for a copy of our book that they are most likely to purchase over the internet at a price cheaper than had they gone to the neighborhood bookstore.